With the advancement of integrated circuit technology, the Input and Output (I/O) density required to meet the needs of this integrated circuit technology has increased exponentially. Typically these I/Os include conductive balls formed on a semiconductor package to electrically contact a circuit board substrate. The increase in I/O density has resulted in the introduction of solder joints formed with solder balls of increasingly smaller ball pitch. This use of solder balls having small ball pitch is problematic for the reliability of the resultant solder joints, with the solder joints being more susceptible to failure from board flexing and/or bending stresses.
Stress compensation layer, including a number of processes to form such a layer, has been proposed to prevent damage from mechanical stresses to the solder joints. Typically, it encapsulates either the semiconductor wafer or conductive bumps.